


You Know What Happens When You Assume...

by HiddenTreasures



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fluff, Pub Quiz, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-04-09
Packaged: 2018-06-01 06:03:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6503788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenTreasures/pseuds/HiddenTreasures
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose reluctantly allows Jack to talk her into going to pub quiz night with him, where she meets James, Jack's friend who is supposedly not interested in a relationship...</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Know What Happens When You Assume...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chocolatequeen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocolatequeen/gifts).



“Oh, come on, Rosie, pleeease?”

Rose said nothing. Instead, she brought her mug of tea to her lips and took a long sip while never breaking eye contact with the screen of her laptop. This had to be the fiftieth time this week that Jack had asked her to come out to pub quiz night.

“We need at least three people to play!” Jack whined, and Rose cursed herself for the twinge of sympathy she felt for her friend. “Please?”

Rose’s eyes flickered to Jack as she said, “You’ve got loads of friends, Jack. Ask one of them.”

“They’re all busy!”

“So’m I!” Rose exclaimed, gesturing wildly to her computer and the stacks of index cards and loose leaf paper she was surrounded by. “I’ve got a paper to finish.”

“Oh, you’re almost done, and you know it,” Jack cajoled. “It’s not due for another two weeks, and this is already your third draft. You’ve just got minor tweaks, which won’t take you more than a day to finish. I promise I’ll leave you alone tomorrow, but please, Rosie, pleeease come out with me tonight?”

Rose finally leaned back against the couch as she set her computer on the coffee table. She cradled her tea between both hands and ran her thumb long the lip of the mug as she mumbled, “You know I can’t really afford to go out.”

It had been almost a year, but Rose was still trying to pay off the debts left behind after her boyfriend pulled a runner. She could barely afford the rent of the flat she was staying in now, let alone make any headway on the debts she owed.

“Just because Jimmy Stone is a twat doesn’t mean you have to abandon your social life,” Jack said gently, settling in beside her on the sofa. “And you know I’ll spot you for it.”

“I don’t want or need your charity, Jack,” Rose growled, glaring up at him.

“I know, I know,” Jack said, holding his hands up defensively. “But the way I see it, I’m asking you to come out. It’s an inconvenience to you, and you’re doing me a favor, so by rights I should pay for you. Maybe I’ll even talk you into dinner and dessert afterwards.”

He waggled his eyebrows hopefully, and Rose couldn’t help but giggle.

“Oh, fine,” Rose sighed, affecting a put-out expression.

Jack squealed his gratitude and planted a wet, sloppy kiss on her cheek. Rose playfully pushed him away as she scrubbed away his spit.

“You said you needed three people,” Rose said, standing up and stretching out her back, wincing as the vertebrae popped. “Who’s the third?”

“Oh, that’s James,” Jack said. Upon seeing Rose’s blank face, he prompted, “You met him at my Christmas party a few months ago. Tall, skinny, questionable fashion choices. A bit odd, but the nicest guy you’ll ever meet.”

Rose’s cheeks warmed. She remembered him with painful clarity. She’d had a bit too much to drink, and was on the rebound from Jimmy, and with enough liquid courage, she flirted (rather clumsily, now that she thought about it) with him for most of the night. He had been completely oblivious, thankfully, and Rose hoped he had forgotten about her.

“Too smart for his own good,” Jack continued, unaware of Rose’s inner turmoil. “I’ve been trying to set him up for years…”

“Jack, don’t you dare!” Rose warned.

“Oh, no, no, no,” Jack said quickly. “I’ve come to accept his asexual, aromantic, and misanthropic tendencies. He prefers the company of his lab, and that will always be his one true love. It doesn’t matter who I tried to set him up with: male, female, both, neither…he’s just not interested. So no worries, Rose. The only man who’s going to make a pass at you tonight will be me.”

He waggled his eyebrows suggestively again, and laughed heartily as he ducked away from the pillow she aimed at his head.

oOoOo

“James!”

Jack dragged Rose towards a tall lanky bloke dressed in worn jeans and a dark blue oxford shirt. Blimey, he was sexier than Rose remembered, which was saying a lot; at the Christmas party, he looked absolutely delectable in his tight pinstriped suit and ratty trainers. He was still wearing the same trainers, and Rose wondered idly if they were the only pair of shoes he owned. They looked well-worn and well-loved.

“You remember Rose?”

James looked down at her, and Rose tried to will away the heat in her cheeks. His face looked so boyish with the freckles and messy hair that fell into his forehead. He grinned brightly at her, and her belly flipped in a way it shouldn’t be flipping.

“Of course!” James said brightly, and Rose’s cheeks felt hot for a different reason. Remembering back to her messy and over-the-top flirting from four months ago made her want to bury herself in the floorboards. She waited for him to refer to her as _that drunk girl that wouldn’t leave me alone_ , but instead he held out his hand and said, “Lovely to see you again, Rose!”

Rose slipped her palm against his. His hand was warm and smooth, and his fingers wrapped themselves gracefully around her palm. He had beautiful hands, and Rose was reluctant to let go.

“All right, you kids, why don’t you go find us a table, and I’ll get round one,” Jack proposed, turning towards the bar. “Oh, I almost forgot!”

Jack leaned up, grabbed the back of James’s head, and planted a sloppy kiss on his lips. James’s eyes widened and his cheeks flamed red as his eyes darted to Rose’s. He struggled to free himself and nearly fell backwards when Jack finally pulled away with an obscenely wet pop.

“Good to see you, Doc!” Jack said brightly. “How was that? Change your mind yet?”

“Don’t hold your breath,” James muttered, swiping vigorously at his lips.

“Ah, maybe next time,” Jack said with a wink, before turning on his heel towards the bar to fetch their drinks.

“You too, eh?” Rose teased, trying to pretend that he was just another mate.

“Hmm?”

“Jack,” Rose said awkwardly, gesturing towards their friend.

“Oh, yes!” James said. “Incorrigible, he is. Wait, does he do that to you?”

James looked anxious for a moment, and Rose couldn’t fathom why, so she chuckled and said, “I think that’s how Jack greets anyone he meets. He’s harmless.”

James nodded and scratched at the back of his neck.

“Shall we find a table?” he asked. “I think I saw a few in the back.”

Rose nodded and spun towards the empty tables she saw. She sucked in a breath when she felt James’s hand come to rest on her lower back as he guided her through the crowded pub. His hand was so warm, and she could feel the light pressure of the pads of his fingers through the sheer blouse she had donned for the evening. She chanced a look up at him, but he looked relaxed and at ease, as though it was the most natural thing in the world to touch her like this.

 _It must not mean anything to him_ , Rose thought glumly. If he truly weren’t attracted to women (or men), as Jack had said, then of course he wouldn’t read anything into the gesture. She tried to keep that in mind as she willed away the butterflies in her belly and ignored the heat settling between her thighs.

The evening passed in a bit of a blur, and Rose knew it wasn’t from the alcohol, but rather from the bloke sitting across from her at their table. As the evening progressed, Rose learned that James was a graduate student at the university she also attended, and was working towards his doctorate in theoretical physics. Rose also learned that he knew just about everything. He was often the one answering their quiz questions, and Rose would have felt self-conscious, if not for the beaming grin James gave her whenever she answered the art history or pop culture questions that made her feel like the cleverest person in the room. But she may have been projecting.

“You were brilliant!” James shouted at the end of the quiz after it was announced that they had won.

He swept Rose up into an enthusiastic hug. She squeaked and had no choice but to wrap her arms around his neck to hold on for dear life as he spun her wildly around in a circle. His body was so solid and warm against hers and he smelled so good. Bloody hell, did he not realize what he was doing to her?

Rose looked over James’s shoulder to Jack, who looked at dumbstruck as she felt.

Rose gave a mental shrug. If James really was this oblivious, she was damn well going to take full advantage of the opportunity. She nuzzled her face into his shoulder and inhaled his scent: sandalwood and spice and just a hint of the alcohol he’d consumed that night.

He finally set her on her feet, and he was grinning madly at her with bright eyes and pink cheeks.

“You’re coming next week, right?” James asked, and he looked so hopeful that Rose couldn’t possibly refuse. (And if she was using it as an excuse to see him again, well, what was the harm in making a new friend, at the very least?)

“Absolutely,” she said, ignoring the look of disbelief on Jack’s face.

The next week passed so slowly that Rose was sure it was defying the laws of time. She tried to tell herself that it was only because it was nearing the end of the semester, and she forcefully banished the little voice in her head that told her it was because she couldn’t wait to see James again.

Finally, Thursday night rolled around, and Rose eagerly met Jack and James at the pub. Rose was about to head to the bar for a beer and an order of chips, but James stopped her with a hand on her waist.

“I’ve got it!”

“You don’t need to,” Rose said.

Then to Rose’s utmost confusion, James’s cheek stained pink and he scrubbed his hand along the back of his neck. He rocked forward onto the balls of his feet.

“That’s all right! I’ve got it!” he exclaimed, and before she could tell him otherwise, he made a beeline for the bar.

Rose watched him go, smiling at him in equal parts amusement and confusion.

“Geez, I’ve never seen James act like this before,” Jack said.

Rose jumped, forgetting Jack was even there.

“Like what?” she asked lightly, turning and scouring the room for an empty table.

Jack snorted.

“Nothing.”

James came back a few minutes later with two pints of beer and a large order of chips as he shuffled into the booth beside Rose. Jack stared at him from across the table.

“Oh, thanks for the beer, James…oh wait,” he teased, his eyes twinkling with mirth.

James’s cheeks went red again as he mumbled, “Well, I wasn’t sure what you wanted.”

“And yet you knew exactly what Rosie here wanted.”

Jack winked at the pair before dashing towards the bar.

Rose and James sat in an awkward silence for just a few minutes before Rose finally said, “You didn’t need to pay for me, you know.”

James sniffed sharply and inspected the basket of chips intently as though looking for the perfect one.

“I wanted to,” he said softly. He turned suddenly to look at her. His eyes were a shade darker than Rose remembered them being, but there was a caution in them, a nervousness that Rose was surprised to see. “That all right?”

Rose’s stomach fluttered, and she suddenly felt like she was back in high school again and trying to talk to her crush.

“Yeah,” she breathed, and James broke into a smile that made him look years younger.

“Brilliant!” he said, and he subtly scooted closer to her, using the excuse of reaching for the salt.

Rose didn’t mind, and she shuffled closer to him, too, until their thighs were pressed together. She heard his breath hitch and his hands clenched into fists on the table. Uncomfortable, or something else? Rose peered up at him through her lashes at the same moment he looked down at her. His Adam’s apple quivered in his throat, and Rose unconsciously wet her lips.

It was almost in perfect synchronicity that he ducked his head as she tilted hers up, and their lips brushed together, soft and tentative. Rose wouldn’t have called it a kiss, but it was more than accidental contact, and heat flared low in her belly as her lips tingled.

“This okay?” he whispered, his eyes darting back and forth between hers.

“Jack said you didn’t do this sort of thing,” Rose blurted out, and she felt her cheeks go hot. “I just assumed…”

She was mortified, and was about to apologize but James chuckled.

“Jack needs to keep his nose out of other people’s business,” James said lightly.

“So you do do this sort of thing?” Rose asked hesitantly.

“Oh, yes,” he confirmed, ducking his head closer and closer until his nose skimmed across hers.

Rose closed the gap, and she would definitely call this a kiss. His lips were warm and slightly chapped, and his bottom lip slipped so perfectly between hers. He gasped when she suckled at it and nibbled on it. His hands found their way into her hair, holding her tightly and using the leverage to angle her head to deepen the kiss.

The sound of a throat being cleared finally made them spring apart.

Jack was standing by the table with his beer already half-finished, and he was looking at them with a sparkle in his eyes.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said, looking absolutely delighted. “Good on you, Doc! And you, too, Rosie!”

Rose looked up at James. He looked deliciously rumpled; his hair was a mess and his lips were red and slightly swollen, but he was smiling proudly as he clasped her hand in his. She was sure she didn’t look much better, but she couldn’t bring herself to care, and she instead squeezed his hand and cuddled closer to his side.

“I don’t want any hanky panky going on under that table now, you hear,” Jack warned with a smirk. “There are innocent eyes in this pub.”

James snorted and threw a chip at his friend as he happily tugged Rose closer to his side as the moderator signaled the beginning of the game.


End file.
